Okay- I know that I haven't finished the prequel Burnt Ice yet, but here is the sequel. I actually have both almost finished, but there are holes that need to be filled in so I can't post the whole thing yet. So . . . I like this story uber more than my other one, but I'll try really hard to pace myself and write them at the same rate. If you started to read Burnt Ice and stopped because it wasn't Zutara centric enough, this is completely different. As much as I tried, the other characters don't come into play much until the final battle. Oh well. (and there's actually a smidge of Taang at the end.) I'd also like the opportunity to point out that I have shipping allegiance problems between maiko, zutara, and kataang. my point is that if i'm doing zutara wrong plz tell me. okay that was waaay to long. so sorry!!
Katara slowly walked across the pavement to the edge of the balcony.
Mist surrounded the western air temple. Katara sat on the railing, bended a handful in and slowly spun it. She waited until it had formed a large drop of water, and then let it go. It fell like a tear down into the gray abyss. She heard footsteps behind her and looked up to see Zuko in the doorway. Shadows covered the left side of his face, but as he walked outside they scattered. Underneath was the melon–red of his scar. He saw her and started to turn back.
"Zuko?" He turned half toward her. "You don't have to go."
"It's fine. I'll just meditate in my room for a while." She could tell that he wanted to leave, but Katara was trying to have a nice civilized conversation for once and he wasn't going to get away that easily.
"You seem to do that a lot." she commented.
"Meditate?"
Katara nodded.
"That's where I can reach a calm place to evaluate my life – think clearly about the war and . . . ." For a second he sounded like he was about to reveal something. " . . . stuff." he finished rather lamely. Katara was disappointed. She had hoped that after their last incident he would be more open to her. She opened her mouth to probe him farther, but Zuko was talking again.
"Do you know what time brunch will be?"
"I just put the kumen berry porridge on, so maybe 20 minutes or so."
"You're not going to sneak in any leftovers are you?"
"What - you didn't like the pickled briar prunes?"
Zuko recoiled comically, " Those things are nasty!'
"Hey, don't bite the hand that feeds you!" Katara shot back, but she secretly agreed whole-heartedly. Zuko threw his hands in the air feigning backing off, "Whoa, didn't mean to offend the cook." Something like a smile played foreignly around his lips before he turned and melted back into the shadowy hallway.
Katara was left, still sitting on the railing, her eyebrows up in surprise. A joke. She had joked with Prince Zuko of the Fire nation. "What is this world coming to?" she said out loud. Then she realized the bitter irony of her words at a time like this.
Another tear dropped off into the gray abyss beneath her, but this one had rolled off her upturned cheek.
How was it? R&R people!! R&R!! Everytime you review, Zuko's glances Katara's way. THAT should be incentive enough.